The City of Edmonton is one step closer to moving forward with the Galleria project, after council agreed to provide financial support for the Galleria pedway, if other partners come on board.
The closed door debate went late into the evening on Tuesday night. The main issue at hand was whether $25 million should be contributed to the pedway linking the Galleria are to the Churchill LRT Station.
In the end, council voted to approve $4.4 million for the pedway, with the caveat that the province and landowners pick up the rest of the cost.
"Up till now its really been put on us, you build this, you have a deadline, and council doesn't respond that well to being put under pressure that way." Mayor Don Iveson said Tuesday night. "We'd like the opportunity to talk to some of the other beneficiaries of the pedway."
But members of the Edmonton Downtown Academic & Cultural Centre Foundation (EDACC) which is spearheading the Galleria project say more clarity is required.
"Part of the problem is we don't really understand what the motion is so if someone from the administration can sit down and explain what it is cause we're not sure." Foundation member Jim Brown said on Tuesday.
Construction of the pedway is under a time constraint, as it needs to coincide with the building of the new Royal Alberta Museum downtown. The pedway will connect the museum it with the Churchill LRT Station.
The finished Galleria project would include four performing arts space in the city's downtown, as well as arts space for the University of Alberta, and a new office tower. Funding for the rest of the project is still under discussion.
